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Charles Lyell was born in Kinnordy , Forfarshire, Scotland, the eldest of ten children. Lyell's father, also named Charles, was a botanist of minor repute and first exposed the younger Charles to the study of nature. Having attended Exeter College, Oxford ending in 1816, Lyell encountered geology as a serious profession under the wing of William Buckland. Upon graduation he took a professional detour into the law, but dabbled in geology. His first paper, "On a Recent Formation of Freshwater Limestone in Forfarshire", was presented in 1822. By 1827 he had abandoned the law and embarked on a long geological career that would result in the widespread acceptance of the ideas proposed by James Hutton a few decades before.

His most important specific work was in the field of stratigraphy. In 1828, he travelled to the south of France and to Italy, where he realized that the recent strata could be categorized according to the number and proportion of marine shells encased within. Based on this he proposed dividing the Tertiary period into three parts, which he named the Pliocene, MioceneThe Miocene Epoch is a period of time that extends from about 5 million to 24 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified, but the exact dates of the start and end, and EoceneThe Eocene epoch (55-37 mya) is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Tertiary period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch. The start of.

From 1830Events February 3 The previously autonomous state of Greece gains full independence from the Ottoman Empire as the final result of the Greek War of Independence. Negotiations for the borders between the two states continue until 1832, under the supervisio to 1833Events January 3 Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. June 6 U. President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train. September 29 The infant Isabella II becomes Queen of Spain, under the regency of her mot his multi-volume Principles of Geology was published. The work's subtitle was "An Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface by Reference to Causes now in Operation", and this explains Lyell's impact on science. He was, along with the earlier John PlayfairJohn Playfair ( March 10, 1748 July 20, 1819) was a Scottish scientist. Playfair was professor of mathematics and later professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University. He is best known for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Ear, the major advocate of the then-controversial idea of uniformitarianism, that the earth was shaped entirely by slow-moving forces acting over a very long period of time. This was in contrast to catastrophismCatastrophism is the theory that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope. The Biblical story of the Great Flood is a prime example of catastrophism. Starting in the late 18th century, scientist, a geologic idea that went hand-in-hand with age of the earth as implied by biblical chronology. In various revised editions (twelve in all, through 1872), Principles of Geology was the most influential geological work in the middle of the 19th century, and did much to put geology on a modern footing. For his efforts he was knighted in 1848, then made a baronet in 1864.

During the 1840sEvents and Trends First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) on February 6, 1840 at Waitangi New Zealand. The treaty between the British Crown and Maori made New Zealand a British colony and is considered the founding point of modern N, he travelled to the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in and Canada, which resulted in his writing two popular travel-and-geology books: 1845's Travels in North America and A Second Visit to the United States (from 1849).

He won the Copley Medal in 1858 and the Wollaston Medal in 1866.

Upon his death in 1875, he was buried in Westminster Abbey.